Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, Jul 14, 2015 : Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday demanded the Center to include Sambalpuri, Kosali and Ho languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Reiterating his demand to include these languages in the 8th schedule, Naveen in a letter to union home minister Rajnath Singh, urged consider the proposal for inclusion of these three languages of the state in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

Earlier on March 1, 2014, the chief minister had sent a letter to the Union Home ministry in this regard.

“The state government had submitted a complete proposal based on the recommendations of an Expert Committee to the ministry”, he said.

Sambalpuri and Kosali are the mother tongue of more than 75 lakh people in Western Odisha and have been spoken for many centuries and used as a medium of teaching in non-formal schools now, while Ho is the mother tongue of more than 10 lakh tribal people living in the districts on the borders of Odisha and Jharkhand, the chief minister pointed out.

“Considering the above, I request you again to consider the proposal expeditiously to fulfill a long-standing demand of people speaking these languages,” the chief minister said in his letter.